January 17, 2009

Precision running

Fri: X-trng (wts, abs, bike 30 mins.)

Sat: 24k (20k@5:oo/k)

I am not sure if I am planning the right pre-marathon workouts, but I do know that I am doing them exactly to plan. Today, for instance, I planned to do 20k at 5:00/k pace (1:40:00) and ran it in 1:39:52 (49:56/49:56). That seems exact enough. With 2k warmup and warmdown, it was 24k. After running 16k at marathon pace on Thursday, 45 seconds slower per k is a very comfortable pace. Legs (mostly back of legs) were a bit sore, and more sore the last 5k, but not too bad.

24k. (2k easy in 12:15, 10k@5:00, 200m walk, 10k@5:00, 2k easy in 12:10) Total 2:04. A "tempo run." Supposed to be a good training pace, about halfway between MP and easy.

Time: 3:00

Weather: 11°, sunny

Wt: 61.2

Shoes: 430g

Tomorrow 30k easy at 6:00 or 6:30, whatever. In fact, I should just run 3 hrs., and not worry about the distance. With walk breaks every 30 minutes.

I ran marathons between the ages of 35 and 37, gave them up, ran some more in my early 60s, and have given them up again. Too painful (maybe because I tried to run them too fast) and I got tired of all the long training runs, which also put too much stress on the body. So I'm back to tempo and interval training for 10Ks and Halfs, which I enjoy a lot. Winning, or finishing near the top, in my age group is fun too. Hope to run some big races in various countries and crush the competition. :)